The present invention relates generally to governor systems for agricultural implements and more particularly relates to a hydraulic governor system for regulating the speed of the feeding conveyor mechanism on a processing unit such as a hammer mill or grinder.
Existing governor systems utilized on agricultural grinders and hammer mills employ generally exposed mechanical governors relying on centrifugal force, springs, gears and/or levers. These systems are driven by the grinder or processing unit and regulate the feeding conveyor speed through activating a clutch to disengage the conveyor motor and stop the flow of material to the processing unit whenever it becomes overloaded.
Because these governor systems are exposed to the elements, foreign materials such as grain, dirt, water and ice can accumulate around and on the components, reducing the sensitivity of the governor's response and causing potential safety hazards. As the governors become less sensitive, the processing unit will more frequently overload to either cause the power source, usually a tractor, to stop running or to do damage to the implement. Such recurrent downtime caused by clearing an overloaded grinder or hammer mill or restarting an engine often causes unnecessary added expenses for the farmer. If such accumulations of foreign material do not result in stoppage of the tractor, they often make the governor response less dependable causing variations in processing efficiency.